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As far as I can tell, there's no new "technology" in whatever product Palantir offers (I have briefly used it before?). It seems to me that it's just a program

As far as I can tell, there's no new "technology" in whatever product Palantir offers (I have briefly used it before?). It seems to me that it's just a program for data visualization, which given that the government is one of their customers, is quite the grifting of the public.

swalsh 10y ago
I certainly have never used it before, but I got the impression it's a giant graph database, and an easy UX on top to search it.
tomlock 10y ago
I interviewed for them a few months back and they have some things surrounding data tagging and linking that fall under "dynamic ontology" they'd probably consider unique. And they have some access control stuff that seems neat. I don't understand either concept fully - only got 3 rounds in.
- griffinmmahon 10y ago
  Didn't know about this, thanks for the info!
clydethefrog 10y ago
The technology in the first iPhone ten years ago also existed for many years. Look how much society has changed thanks to Apple strategy of combining technology with design and good usability. That's the real and in my opinion frightening innovation behind Palantir. It's selling mass surveillance that "just works".
- liquidise 10y ago
  They are selling data visualization, not mass surveillance. There is a key distinction here. If it had some out that MongoDB was being used as the underlying datastore for XKS or that Tableau was being used to visualize the data, would we be decrying those products too?
  - throwaway2048 10y ago
    MongoDB developers arnt not writing said software in a way specificly targeted at government usage for surveillance.
unityByFreedom 10y ago
I imagine it's less the tech and more that it's likely to be used for extreme political aims. People feel other CEOs would have held back from using data collection for such drastic political means. Thiel wouldn't, and may have created the business to accomplish his political dreams. We all try to influence society through government by voting with our feet, voice, and wallet. Thiel just happens to have a much bigger wallet, and his political agenda is pretty extreme compared to the laws that are followed today.
- griffinmmahon 10y ago
  I do not disagree!

swalsh 10y ago

I certainly have never used it before, but I got the impression it's a giant graph database, and an easy UX on top to search it.

tomlock 10y ago

I interviewed for them a few months back and they have some things surrounding data tagging and linking that fall under "dynamic ontology" they'd probably consider unique. And they have some access control stuff that seems neat. I don't understand either concept fully - only got 3 rounds in.

griffinmmahon 10y ago
Didn't know about this, thanks for the info!

clydethefrog 10y ago

The technology in the first iPhone ten years ago also existed for many years. Look how much society has changed thanks to Apple strategy of combining technology with design and good usability. That's the real and in my opinion frightening innovation behind Palantir. It's selling mass surveillance that "just works".

liquidise 10y ago
They are selling data visualization, not mass surveillance. There is a key distinction here. If it had some out that MongoDB was being used as the underlying datastore for XKS or that Tableau was being used to visualize the data, would we be decrying those products too?
- throwaway2048 10y ago
  MongoDB developers arnt not writing said software in a way specificly targeted at government usage for surveillance.

unityByFreedom 10y ago

I imagine it's less the tech and more that it's likely to be used for extreme political aims. People feel other CEOs would have held back from using data collection for such drastic political means. Thiel wouldn't, and may have created the business to accomplish his political dreams. We all try to influence society through government by voting with our feet, voice, and wallet. Thiel just happens to have a much bigger wallet, and his political agenda is pretty extreme compared to the laws that are followed today.

griffinmmahon 10y ago
I do not disagree!